Lake schools borrowing $500,000

The administration of Lake Local Schools is borrowing $500,000 to address temporary cash flow shortfalls.

The board of education scheduled a special meeting for Dec. 14 to authorize treasurer Jeff Carpenter to borrow the money in anticipation of future tax receipts to meet current cash flow needs.

Carpenter said a combination of state and federal funding cuts as well as a double-digit drop in local property valuations were behind the need for the district to borrow.

The loan will be repaid as the district receives its first-half property taxes early next year, Carpenter said.

“It goes back to the same old story before all the funding cuts,” he said.

Despite extensive budgetary cuts by the Lake board earlier this year as well as the past two years, the district’s revenues have been hit hard enough to create a shortfall this time of year, Carpenter said.

Agricultural and residential property valuations in the district have dropped by about 15 percent in recent years, he said.

According to a resolution approved by the school board in March before enacting wide-ranging spending cuts, local real estate collections decreased by $425,903 for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

Voters in the district approved a 6.75-mill operating levy in August.

Sr. meal program fundedThe Ottawa County commissioners have approved $121,549 in funding for the meal program provided by the Area Office on Aging of Northwestern Ohio in 2013.

The agency will provide meals for dining sites and home delivery.

Solidarity expressed Democratic members of the Ohio House of Representatives wore red carnations during Tuesday’s session to show solidarity with those in Michigan opposed to right-to-work legislation.